Containers used in the packaging art for storing and dispensing liquids generally include a sealed polymeric bag or pouch. There are a variety of pouches known in the art, particularly for storing liquids or concentrates.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,697 to Jeans discloses a container for dispensing a concentrate at a predetermined flow rate. The container also includes two mating assemblies, mating at an outlet valve, and a tube in its interior to permit controlled pressurization to the volume in the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,835 to Kruger et al. discloses a disposable pouch for beverage syrups and concentrates including a collapsible bag, a discharge spout, and an insert that can be broken off when a dosing valve assembly is attached. The pouch has utility in a postmix beverage dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,955 to Viegas discloses a flaccid-bottom, lightweight delivery package for dispensing fluid products. The package contains a self-sealing dispensing valve and is particularly useful for storing and dispensing viscous fluid materials.
Additionally, it may be useful to mix two liquid or concentrate components together, especially to create a beverage for consumption. This mixing may occur during storage or upon dispensing. The two liquids or concentrates can be simply placed together after dispensation, dispensed together without added mixing, or dispensed together with intimate mixing. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,204,775 and 4,316,673 to Speer each disclose a mixing device that uses a tortuous path to shear, fold, mix, and blend together a two-part fluid compound.
Beverages made from individual components are generally mixed together and dispensed by a dispensing system. Dispensing systems may be manual or automatic and may operate continuously or in discrete dispensation steps. Liquid dispensation systems typically involve at least a liquid receptacle for holding the liquid and a pump for dispensing the liquid into a consumable portion. A variety of liquid dispensing systems are commercially available and disclosed in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,306,667; 4,359,432; and 4,376,496, as well as U.S. Reissue Pat. No. RE 32,179 all to Sedam et al., disclose a post-mix carbonated beverage dispensing system for used in refrigerated cabinets. The dispensing system contains a carbonator with a refillable water reservoir, a CO.sub.2 system, a valving system, and a disposable package for containing and dispensing the post-mix beverage syrup.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,127 to Garabedian et al. discloses a liquid dispenser system containing a collapsible bag with a self-sealing valve and clips to engage the dispenser, clip-receiving structures to engage the bag clips and open or close the valve, a pump, support for the bag, and a frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,886 to Kirschner discloses a post-mix juice dispensing system including a bag-in-tank system for reconstituting and dispensing a juice concentrate at freezer temperatures. The bag-in-tank system includes a pressurizable canister with a slidable carrier capable of forcing concentrate out of a flexible bag under pressure and placed therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,368,195 to Pleet et al. discloses a pressurized bag-in-bottle fluid dispenser system for accurately delivering a viscous or semi-viscous liquid. The dispenser system is particularly suited for dispensing condiments, paints, pigments, or adhesives and includes a metering unit activated by a manually operated trigger on a gun.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,615,801 and 5,735,436 to Schroeder et al. disclose a disposable and recyclable juice concentrate package for a post-mix juice dispenser. The dispenser includes a pump that provides a continuous stream of concentrate, a package housing containing a container housing and a pump housing, and an integral mixing nozzle. It is suggested that the continuous streaming of the concentrate into the mixing chamber of the dispenser improves mixing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,312 to Credle, Jr. et al. discloses a manually operated, postmix juice dispenser. This low cost dispenser is used with a disposable concentrate package and includes a water tank, a water pump, and a pump handle. The disposable concentrate package for use with this system is generally a flexible pouch with a built-in concentrate pump that connects to the handle.
In some circumstances, two liquids may be dispensed together by the same apparatus. A single apparatus that allows mixing of two liquids results in effectively a better mixed consumer beverage product. The two liquids can be dispensed, for example, using a dual liquid dispenser package, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,057 to Uffenheimer et al. This patent discloses a dispenser package containing two separate liquid dispensing chambers, two liquid reservoirs, and liquid supply channels connecting the reservoirs to the chambers.
Coffee products, which are in a form convenient for the consumer, are commonly available as soluble beverage powders and ready-to-drink liquid beverages.
Coffee products in the form of soluble beverage powders may be of extremely high quality; to the point were they provide a beverage very similar to freshly brewed beverages. Despite this, they are still perceived as being inferior to freshly brewed coffee. Also, the fact that soluble beverage powders are in powder form creates problems in many food service applications where the product is dispensed from a machine. In particular, problems such as mechanical degradation of the powder, bridging, and blocking occur. Refilling of the dispensing device with powdered products may also require manual operation and cleaning and may cause loss of refill material in loading the machine's hopper.
Ready-to-drink liquid coffee beverages are very popular in Asian markets. The beverages are made up of soluble coffee solids, stabilizers, water and, usually, sugar. For whitened beverages, a creamer or whitener may be included. Ordinarily, these beverages have a soluble coffee solids concentration of about 1% by weight. These beverages are very often consumed cold and, in general, have organoleptic properties which are different than freshly brewed coffee. Therefore they do not, and in fact are not intended to, provide a substitute to freshly brewed coffee.
There have also been attempts to provide convenient coffee products in fluid concentrate form. In theory, a coffee concentrate offers the advantages of being perceived to have better quality than soluble beverage powders, and being simple to apply in food service applications. Unfortunately, liquid coffee concentrates are unstable and this has severely limited their application. One problem appears to be the increase of acidity over time which negatively influences the quality of the beverage reconstituted from the coffee concentrate. Also, curdling of whitener or creamer components may occur.
Attempts have been made to avoid or reduce the acidity increase by adding base to the concentrate. For example, European Patent Application No. EP0861596 describes treating a coffee concentrate with alkali to convert acid precursors to their acid salts, and then neutralizing the treated concentrate with acid to bring the pH to about 4.7 to 5.3. This process is described to convert the acid precursors to stable salts and hence prevent the formation of acid during storage.
Another possible method of avoiding or reducing the acidity increase in aromatized coffee concentrates is to increase concentration to above about 55%. This is described in European Patent Application No. EP0893065.
When dispensing beverages including two or more fluids, it is desirable that the at least two fluids be stored apart and be easily mixed together and with other optional components using a single dispensation system. This can be advantageously accomplished with the aid of a multi-component packing assembly for separate storage of at least two fluid components together, allowing uniformity in packaging and dispensation system design and resulting in simplified shipping and implementation of dispensing a beverage from these at least two fluid components.